rabble.ca - U.S. politicshttp://rabble.ca/taxonomy/term/26213
enHow to bring the ultrarich back down to earthhttp://rabble.ca/news/2018/10/how-bring-ultrarich-back-down-earth
<div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Mary Rowles</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-for-node field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news/2018/10/how-bring-ultrarich-back-down-earth"><img src="http://rabble.ca/sites/default/files/styles/large_story_850px/public/node-images/Maximum%20Wage%252FHeartland%20Review.jpg?itok=LuwV9m7O" width="1180" height="600" alt="" /></a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><em>The Case for a Maximum Wage, by Sam Pizzigati (Polity Press, 2018).</em></p>
<p><em>Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth, by Sarah Smarsh (Scribner, 2018).</em></p>
<p>This past September, the media revealed that online retail billionaire Yusaku Maezawa had ponied up for a ticket to ride a SPACEX rocket around the moon. Although the sticker price is unknown -- and really, if you have to ask, etcetera -- it's rumoured Maezawa will pay tens of millions for his trip. </p>
<p>Space tourism with one of many competing egotists -- Branson, Bezos or Musk -- is only the latest example of conspicuous consumption by the ultrarich, a group that author Sam Pizzigati says we simply can no longer afford.</p>
<p>In his small and cheerful book <em>The Case for a Maximum Wage</em>, Pizzigati explains: "We would prosper, in every sense, without them. Their presence coarsens our culture, erodes our economic future and diminishes our democracy." And since a great deal of wealth is built on ruinous extractive industries, he concludes, "the wealthy may pose our single biggest obstacle to environmental progress."</p>
<p>What to do? In a few short chapters, Pizzigati lays out a handful of what he calls "predistributive" measures to reduce corrosive inequality by preventing the concentration of wealth in the first place. </p>
<p>Despite what the book's title implies, Pizzigati is talking about income, not wages. For a start, he proposes setting a maximum income level, at some multiple of the minimum wage, and taxing personal income above this level at as much as 100%. </p>
<p>Absurd, no? But not unprecedented. The author points out that during World War II, the United States imposed a tax of 94% on income over $200,000. The taxes were quickly reduced once the troops came home and government returned to its peacetime job of representing millionaires.</p>
<p>Pizzigati argues government action should focus on corporations. He calls for sunshine laws to reveal ratios between the highest paid executive and the lowest paid worker. And he proposes governments tie subsidies, tax breaks and contracts to having rational pay ratios. </p>
<p>As he points out, "Tax dollars, Americans have come to believe, should not subsidize enterprises that increase racial or gender inequality ... they should also not subsidize enterprises that widen economic inequality."</p>
<p>Pizzigati reassures readers that the elites -- the economists, politicians, political organizations through Europe, the Middle East and the United States -- are articulating some of the same solutions. His examples are as diverse as French Presidential candidate Jean Luc Mélenchon, writers in <em>Foreign Policy, </em>and Cairo's Arab Spring rebels. Administrations as different as the Mondragon commune and the State of Rhode Island have put some of these measures in place. </p>
<p>Some will dismiss all this as naïve. Pizzigati himself acknowledges how fiercely the wealthy have pushed back over the past 50 years against even modest tax increases and social welfare programs. Others will object that these measures prop up capitalism rather than dismantling it. And there is a further issue of how to build broad support for reining in the super-rich since, as PIzzigati points out, most citizens have never met any. </p>
<p>This is certainly the case for the families featured in <em>Heartland<u>, </u></em>by Sarah Smarsh. Her extended Kansas family of working and rural poor defined <em>wealthy</em> as anyone who could shop every weekend at the Wichita mall.</p>
<p>In her book, subtitled "A memoir of working hard and being broke in the richest country on earth," Smarsh documents the hard scrabble existence of families in what is casually dismissed in American politics as "fly-over country."</p>
<p><em>Heartland</em> is a multigenerational study of the lives and disappointments of America's underemployed and underpaid, those who labour in the Piggly Wigglys, the KFCs, the small farms and trucking companies, the chicken processing plants.</p>
<p>It's also, in part, Smarsh's answer to the questions, "What's the matter with Kansas?" and “Why does small- town white working class America vote against its own best interests and return Republicans instead of Democrats?”</p>
<p>For Smarsh, part of the answer is the American dream -- the belief that if you work hard, you can make good. Failure to prosper results in shame, because in America poverty implies bad choices, laziness, and moral failure, "a failure of the soul."</p>
<p>Political confusion ensues, as "society's contempt for the poor becomes the poor person's contempt for herself. For this reason, in many cases no one loathed the concept of ‘handouts’ more than the people who needed them.”</p>
<p>And thanks to what Smarsh describes as the vitriol of cable TV and conservative talk radio, the Democrats are firmly established in proud rural communities as the party of handouts. Republicans win out as the party of "helping people help themselves."</p>
<p>For those completely unaware of the lives of the white working class, <em>Heartland</em> is the detailed field guide to Middle America you've been looking for. But the lives of Jeannie, Theresa, Chic, Betty, Arnie and many, many others who populate the memoir are presented in excessive, overwhelming detail. </p>
<p><em>Heartland </em> is also marred by an introduction, conclusion, and periodic asides addressed to a never-conceived daughter -- half imaginary friend, and half moral and spiritual compass who was part of the author's internal life from her childhood until her thirties. </p>
<p>This jarring quirkiness is unfortunate, because Smarsh has a gift for crafting vibrant images and stating overarching truths. For example, on the absence of class awareness, she writes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>That we could live on a patch of Kansas dirt with a tub of Crisco lard and a $1 rebate coupon in an envelope on the kitchen counter and call ourselves middle class was at once a triumph of contentedness and a sad comment on our country's lack of awareness about its own economic structure. Class didn’t exist ... you got what you worked for, we believed.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Now neither Smarsh or any of her small town family would ever meet a towering billionaire like astronaut Maezawa. And even if they did (both Smarsh and Pizzigati agree), most people would be entirely unlikely to connect their misfortunes to the existence of the super rich. But Kansas, and the rest of the "fly-over" world could be a lot better off if, on Maezawa's return, he was greeted with a hefty tax bill instead of champagne. </p>
<p><em>Mary Rowles </em><em>worked in the Canadian labour movement for 33 years. She resides on B.C.’s Saltspring Island and qualifies as one of Alberta premier Rachel Notley’s “unicorn jockeys.”</em></p>
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</div></div></div>Thu, 25 Oct 2018 13:48:41 +0000rabble staff152661 at http://rabble.cahttp://rabble.ca/news/2018/10/how-bring-ultrarich-back-down-earth#comments204 years after the White House burned down, D.C. is in flames yet againhttp://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/alberta-diary/2018/08/204-years-after-white-house-burned-down-dc-flames-yet-again
<div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">David J. Climenhaga</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-for-node field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://rabble.ca/sites/default/files/styles/large_story_850px/public/WHBack_1.JPG?itok=QBRnQnd5" width="1180" height="600" alt="The White House" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><em>Washington, D.C.</em></p>
<p>The Day We Burned Ole D.C. Down? It was today, actually.</p>
<p>But if this was big news 204 years ago, when the fire was actually lit by the Royal Marines and sundry British Army regiments -- revenge for the Americans burning down York, now part of Toronto, as a matter of fact -- it doesn’t seem to have had much of an impact in Washington today.</p>
<p>Bigger fish to fry, I guess.</p>
<p>The United States capital is now the Imperial Planetary Capital, of course, or so the occupants of this place seem to believe. So why would they worry about the War of 1812, which they firmly believe to a man and a woman they won anyway. (This is the 19th Century version of "fake news," which over time eventually solidifies into “fake history.")</p>
<p>The place has only been occupied by a foreign power once, and we Canadians have been taking credit for it so long that we own it now, even though as far as anyone knows there were no Canadians here on the night the British burned down the White House, the Capitol and a few other government buildings, and if there were, they came by way of Bermuda aboard ships of the Royal Navy.</p>
<p>At any rate, no crowds of angry Americans were camped outside the British or Canadian embassies earlier today with pitchforks and torches, infuriated that the British soldiers mocked their nascent democracy by taking a vote in the halls of Congress on whether or not to burn the place to the ground. (The Ayes had it.) </p>
<p>In fairness, there was a small crowd of angry Americans at the White House, but they were going on about something else.</p>
<p>By the same token, there were no mobs of drunken Royal Marines or Canadian hockey hooligans terrifying the locals as they celebrated their (our) fiery depredations of 204 years ago. </p>
<p>No, those events are, as the Americans say, <em>history</em>. Which is to say, almost completely forgotten within the borders of the United States of Amnesia, as Gore Vidal famously called the place. Irrelevant. Of no consequence.</p>
<p>If you want to know how much importance Washington puts on this event, the <em>Post </em>mentioned it in a 30-word today-in-history notation on Page 2, the worst page in any newspaper -- and got the number of years since the blaze wrong, apparently because someone concluded the War of 1812 must have been over by 1813.</p>
<p>As for the numerous Americans I obsessively queried about their history, none of them had any idea what had happened. Apparently everyone’s too caught up in the current drama, waiting to learn when -- and how -- President Donald Trump will be removed from power.</p>
<p>Indeed, it’s sort of weird that President Trump -- or someone on his staff, at any rate -- actually remembered the occasion, if only to give Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a gentle poke on the NAFTA file. Obviously, the president’s heart wasn’t in it, or he would have called the PM a dog or an animal or something.</p>
<p>As previously noted in this space, I blame former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper for Mr. Trump even having taken notice. Mr. Harper’s government spent $30 million in 2012 on a U.S.-style binge of militarism to celebrate the War of 1812, which was about one big fire away from petering out completely by 1814.</p>
<p>If you ask me, we all would have been better off if the (modern Canadian) Tories celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Official Languages Act or the 30th anniversary of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, both of which fell in the same year as the War of 1812 bicentennial. But conservatives always do love a military parade, speaking of Mr. Trump, as we were. (He’s not getting his, by the way, as alert readers will recall.) And they hate Liberals, who were responsible for the two actual accomplishments listed above.</p>
<p>Anyway, there it is. No one here except the today-in-history guy at the <em>Washington Post </em>even noticed the passing of the occasion, as far as I can tell. They probably wouldn’t have noticed if we’d lit celebratory bonfires along the border either.</p>
<p>Our American Cousins would simply conclude it was smoke from burned forests in California drifting in on the hot winds of global climate change -- except here inside the Beltway, of course, where human caused climate warming is not acknowledged to be a thing, and won’t be as long as the Republicans hold the Senate and the House. In other words, until November.</p>
<p>All’s quiet at the White House tonight. Or, at least, <em>if it isn’t, it has nothing to do with us!</em></p>
<p><em>This post also appears on David Climenhaga's blog, <a href="http://albertapolitics.ca/">AlbertaPolitics.ca</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>Image: David Climenhaga</em></p>
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</div></div></div>Sat, 25 Aug 2018 02:13:10 +0000djclimenhaga149906 at http://rabble.cahttp://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/alberta-diary/2018/08/204-years-after-white-house-burned-down-dc-flames-yet-again#commentsConservatives defend racist heckler who tried to sandbag the PM … so how's that working out? http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/alberta-diary/2018/08/conservatives-defend-racist-heckler-who-tried-sandbag-pm-%E2%80%A6-so
<div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">David J. Climenhaga</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-for-node field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://rabble.ca/sites/default/files/styles/large_story_850px/public/42974416592_f7a506683d_k.jpg?itok=eTtgljLe" width="1180" height="600" alt="Andrew Scheer in Quebec. Photo: Andrew Scheer/Flickr" title="Andrew Scheer in Quebec. Photo: Andrew Scheer/Flickr" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><em>Hmmmmmmm ...</em></p>
<p>Andrew Scheer's Conservatives appear to have picked <a href="http://pressprogress.ca/conservative-leader-andrew-scheer-defends-heckler-affiliated-with-far-right-anti-immigrant-groups/" target="_blank">defending a racist heckler</a> who tried to sandbag Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with a string of tendentious questions about immigration and refugees as the hill they want to die on!</p>
<p>I wonder how this will work out for them? Not well, I imagine.</p>
<p>The Conservatives apparently realized too late the middle-aged "questioner" they'd leaped to defend was in fact an agitator associated with several far-right, anti-immigration groups, at least one of which also appears to favour Quebec separation.</p>
<p>Consequently, they were trying desperately yesterday to spin the questioner as "elderly" (she looked like a robust specimen in her middle years), her racist connections as mere allegations (the case seems to be watertight), and her repeated interruptions as an entirely legitimate question.</p>
<p>And the prime minister was so <em>rude</em>, they whined, although "OK, Madame, this intolerance towards immigrants has no room in Canada," politely repeated several times, would sound like a pretty reasonable retort under the circumstances to most of us.</p>
<p>Most Canadians, whether they speak English or French at home, just aren't going to get their pantaloons in a twist if the PM is a little sharp in either official language with a well-organized effort by the right to disrupt his speech. Indeed, they'd probably enjoy a little <em>"just watch me"</em> from the younger Trudeau, if not an outright Jean-Chretien-style chokehold.</p>
<p>This is what happens to Tories when they <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/hamish-marshall-andrew-scheer-conservative-campaign-1.4358811" target="_blank">hand their election strategizing over to a former <em>Rebel Media</em> director</a>, I suppose. Either that, or they'll get advice to call <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/andrew-scheer-india-trip-1.4793154" target="_blank">a fall holiday in India</a> an effort to "repair" the PM's "disastrous" state visit last February. </p>
<p>Oh, please! Scheer's planned October trip is bound to be embarrassing -- in an entirely different way from the PM's. At least the Conservatives are wisely determined to avoid photo-ops, presumably because no one very recognizable is likely to be willing pose with a gaggle of visiting Canadian Cons.</p>
<p>It was ironic that yesterday members of the Conservative Party's own anti-immigrant base were paying little attention to Scheer's desperate effort to spin Trudeau's remarks as inappropriate. Instead, they were in a swivet that their beloved <em>Rebel Media</em> hasn't been invited to the party's bunfest in Halifax tomorrow.</p>
<p>This presumes, of course, that the multitudinous tweets demanding talking heads from Ezra Levant's offensive video-blog site be made welcome were being posted by actual conservatives and not just <em>Rebel</em> bots. Perhaps Hamish Marshall, the former <em>Rebel</em> sub-commandante now commanding Scheer's campaign, has some insight into the provenance of those messages.</p>
<p>Apparently the same party that thinks it's reasonable to protest the elevation of a defence lawyer to the bench because he once defended someone they don't approve of also believes racing to the rhetorical defence of racist separatists is just fine. What does this tell you?</p>
<p>Speaking of the Front Patriotique du Québec, one of the groups involved in heckling Trudeau in rural Sainte-Anne-de-Sabrevois, has anyone else noticed the resemblance of that group's branding to that of the violently separatist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Front_de_lib%C3%A9ration_du_Qu%C3%A9bec" target="_blank">Front de libération du Québec</a> of the 1970s?</p>
<p>Yes, the man on the FPQ flag is marching to the right, and the fellow on the FLQ Manifesto is going the other direction, but the tribute seems obvious, and is presumably intentional.</p>
<p>Conservatives in 1970 may not have had much time for prime minister Pierre Trudeau, but they certainly wouldn't have climbed into bed with the separatists he was tangling with.</p>
<p>The message for Scheer and his party needs to be that you're going to be judged by the people you defend … unless you happen to be a defence lawyer.</p>
<p><strong>A bad day for Donald Trump … and maybe Postmedia too</strong></p>
<p>Yesterday can't have been a good day for U.S. President Donald Trump, with his former campaign director found guilty of eight counts of financial crime, and his former legal counsel pleading guilty in another court to eight criminal counts related to the 2016 presidential election campaign.</p>
<p>The president's former campaign director, Paul Manafort, pleaded not guilty, but <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/21/politics/paul-manafort-trial-jury/index.html" target="_blank">was found guilty of the eight counts</a> by a jury in Virginia. His prosecution was being described by media last night as a "major victory" for Trump's nemesis, Special Counsel and former FBI director Robert Mueller. As a result, the "witch hunt," as Trump describes Mueller's efforts, will likely continue.</p>
<p>The president's former personal lawyer, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/21/politics/michael-cohen-plea-deal-talks/index.html" target="_blank">Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty</a> in New York, presumably to escape a worse fate. Court documents show he admitted to working "in co-ordination and at the direction of a candidate for federal office" to violate campaign finance laws. That would be Trump.</p>
<p>The media was having a field day, of course. But what about Postmedia? Was it a good day or bad day for them?</p>
<p>I ask because court documents filed in Cohen's case kept mentioning one David Pecker, CEO of American Media Inc., the publisher of the tabloid <em>National Enquirer</em>. According to CNN, the documents showed Cohen worked with Pecker "to suppress potentially damaging claims against the now-president."</p>
<p>Pecker, of course, is one of the eight members of Postmedia's Board of Directors. According to <a href="http://www.postmedia.com/governance-2/governance/" target="_blank">his potted Postmedia biography</a>, one of his major accomplishments, other than helping to prop up President Trump in questionable ways, was that "since 2005, he has led over $5 billion of bank and high leverage financing."</p>
<p>It will be interesting to observe how the failing Canadian newspaper corporation covers the fact one of its directors is now making news, instead of just suppressing it.</p>
<p><em>This post also appears on David Climenhaga's blog, <a href="http://albertapolitics.ca/" target="_blank">AlbertaPolitics.ca</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>Photo: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewscheer/42974416592/" target="_blank">Andrew Scheer/Flickr</a></em></p>
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</div></div></div>Wed, 22 Aug 2018 16:33:12 +0000djclimenhaga149736 at http://rabble.cahttp://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/alberta-diary/2018/08/conservatives-defend-racist-heckler-who-tried-sandbag-pm-%E2%80%A6-so#commentsRight-wing politicians march in lockstep, dismissing facts as conspiracyhttp://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/alberta-diary/2018/08/right-wing-politicians-march-lockstep-dismissing-facts
<div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">David J. Climenhaga</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-for-node field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://rabble.ca/sites/default/files/styles/large_story_850px/public/michelle%20rempel.jpg?itok=X9Q1G5Ar" width="1180" height="600" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>Apparently infected by the decline of political discourse in the United States, the Canadian right is increasingly moving toward defining the use of facts that run counter to its narrative as conspiracy and policy disagreement criminality.</p>
<p>If you doubt this, consider recent Tweets by the likes of Calgary Conservative MP Michelle Rempel, who accused the Trudeau government and the media of being in a <em>conspiracy</em> to <em>use facts</em> to challenge conservative orthodoxy.</p>
<p><em>The Canadian Press</em> "Baloney Meter" a regular fact-checking feature by the national news agency, <a href="https://twitter.com/MichelleRempel/status/1030115475517128704" style="text-decoration-line: none;">the Calgary-Nose Hill Conservative MP complained in a now notorious Twitter rant</a>, is scheming with the Prime Minister's Office to spin the news to the Liberal government's advantage.</p>
<p>"Their baloney meter is a spin tool for the Trudeau PMO," she Tweeted last week. "Just look at Trudeau's top henchman's Twitter feed useage of it. It's that sort of editorialization disguised as journalism that degrades journalism writ large. Sad."</p>
<p>What was the Conservative immigration critic objecting to, <a href="https://sprawlcalgary.com/whats-happened-to-michelle-rempel-dd85733b2f0e" style="text-decoration-line: none;">asked <em>The Sprawl</em></a>, an online Calgary news and opinion site? The <em>Canadian Press </em>reporter "cited migration data, put the recent migration numbers in context and called three experts for insight." Joan Bryden, one of Ottawa's most experienced reporters, then dismissed Conservative claims there's a "border crisis" as "completely inaccurate."</p>
<p>Once upon a time in Canada, Rempel's kind of rhetorical excess would have seemed bizarre. Alas, here in Alberta we are increasingly habituated to such commentary by members and supporters of the United Conservative Party Opposition who regularly equate opposition in British Columbia to the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion Project with criminality, even terrorism.</p>
<p>Rick Orman, a former Alberta energy minister and two-time candidate to lead Alberta's Conservatives, famously <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/former-alberta-energy-minister-says-call-in-the-troops-trans-mountain-1.4621835" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">called anti-pipeline protesters</a> -- of whom there are plenty on B.C.'s West Coast -- "eco-terrorists." This kind of rhetoric not only undermines democracy and the rule of law, it is likely intended to do so.</p>
<p>In this, of course, these Canadian Conservatives are mimicking Donald Trump, the Twitter-obsessed President of the United States, who regularly equates the publication of inconvenient facts with "fake news," right down to the ejaculative "sad."</p>
<p>I don't think an elected Canadian Con has yet called journalists as a class "enemies of the people," but we can assume that's coming soon too, at least if Trump's social media strategy continues to appear to work for him.</p>
<p>Then again, perhaps this is phenomenon that moves both directions across the world's longest undefended border. After all, just yesterday Trump's legal counsel, <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/8/19/17756534/chuck-todd-rudy-giuliani-truth-isnt-truth" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Rudy Giuliani, expressed the view</a> "truth isn't truth" when you're a president who has to deal with an FBI investigation.</p>
<p>Who knows? Maybe the former New York mayor has been reading Rempel's Twitter feed for inspiration!</p>
<p>Media accounts of Rempel's outbursts on Twitter -- where she has developed a reputation as the Queen of the Blockers in her effort to mute the voices of anyone who dares to challenge her extremism, another Trump technique -- have made much of the fact she used to describe herself as a "centrist."</p>
<p>But as extremism becomes more mainstream within the Conservative Party of Canada -- <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-maxime-berniers-tweets-against-extreme-multiculturalism-touch-off/" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><em>T</em>ory Twitterist Maxime Bernier</a>, c'mon on down! -- there's a case to be made Rempel actually remains a centrist.</p>
<p>A centrist, at least, in the context of the increasingly Republicanized Canadian conservative movement -- which is no longer really conservative in any meaningful sense of the word, but increasingly defines economic "freedom" as trumping the fundamental freedoms defined in the Charter of Rights.</p>
<p>Evidence of this tendency on both sides of the Medicine Line continues to accumulate.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.thestar.com/edmonton/2018/08/13/attorney-general-blasts-alberta-mp-for-a-complete-lack-of-understanding-over-omar-khadrs-former-lawyer.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Consider Lakeland MP Shannon Stubbs' recent outburst</a>, wherein she Tweeted her outrage that a defence lawyer who ably represented a client she disapproved of was made a judge -- a proposition that seems insane if you happen to believe in the rule of law.</p>
<p>Or <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/zinke-says-environmental-terrorist-groups-enabled-wildfires-n901481" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">consider U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke</a>, who last week claimed "environmental terrorist groups" -- not climate change -- created the conditions that have led to California's vicious forest fires.</p>
<p><em>NBC</em> explained Zinke's assertion, made in an interview with the neo-Naziish <em>Breitbart News</em>, thusly: "… that environmental extremists were preventing the government from properly managing forests -- leaving excessive fuel on the ground for the deadly blazes."</p>
<p>In fact, there has long been a controversy in forestry circles about how best to manage fire risk, and it is generally conceded that aggressive fire suppression as demanded by the public, forestry companies, recreationalists and government agencies like the U.S. Forest Service may contribute to fire load over time.</p>
<p>But suggesting the USFS and public policy makers are doing the bidding of "environmental terrorist groups" is just another example of a right-wing politician equating opposition to commercial exploitation of forest resources with criminality.</p>
<p>We are bound to hear similar nonsense in Canada as a federal election looms in 2019 because this tendency on the right, like the fires themselves, is growing in intensity.</p>
<p>That's the gloomy view. The upbeat interpretation is that Twitter is a terrible swift sword -- perhaps devised by the Almighty to be deployed by Silicon Valley, or the other way 'round -- on which North American movement conservatism can impale itself.</p>
<p><em>This post also appears on David Climenhaga's blog, </em><a href="http://albertapolitics.ca/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><em>AlbertaPolitics.ca</em></a><em>. </em></p>
<p><em>Image: Facebook</em></p>
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</div></div></div>Mon, 20 Aug 2018 06:03:19 +0000djclimenhaga149626 at http://rabble.cahttp://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/alberta-diary/2018/08/right-wing-politicians-march-lockstep-dismissing-facts#commentsRethinking the possible -- Going home to the U.S.http://rabble.ca/multimedia/2018/08/rethinking-possible-going-home-us
<div class="field field-name-field-story-publish-date field-type-date field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><span class="date-display-single">August 2, 2018</span></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-22 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/issues/civil-liberties-watch">Civil Liberties Watch</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/issues/us-politics">US Politics</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-for-node field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://rabble.ca/sites/default/files/node-images/Screen%20Shot%202018-08-02%20at%207.52.25%20AM.png" width="1294" height="382" alt="Photo: Sophia Reuss at Columbus Circle, New York City" title="Photo: Sophia Reuss at Columbus Circle, New York City" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-connected-story field-type-node-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/podcasts/shows/rabble-radio/2018/08/rethinking-possible-rabble-assistant-editor-sophia-reuss-talks">Rethinking the possible: rabble assistant editor Sophia Reuss talks about why she decided to move back to the U.S. </a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-summary field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">To stay in Canada or go back home to the US is a question that Americans living in Canada sometimes ask themselves these politically volatile days. Here are one woman&#039;s reasons why she went back home.</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-9 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/tags/donald-j-trump">Donald J. Trump</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/26213">U.S. politics</a></div></div></div>Thu, 02 Aug 2018 14:55:49 +0000rabble staff149021 at http://rabble.cahttp://rabble.ca/multimedia/2018/08/rethinking-possible-going-home-us#commentsA UCP candidate's abortion-restricting strategy for Canada is revealedhttp://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/alberta-diary/2018/06/ucp-candidates-abortion-restricting-strategy-canada-revealed
<div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">David J. Climenhaga</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-for-node field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://rabble.ca/sites/default/files/styles/large_story_850px/public/5880678247_c801876150_b.jpg?itok=jkG7nUo7" width="1180" height="600" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><em>"On abortion, we're never going to see a black and white, yes or no question. My job as your MP is to fight for incremental changes. … It's called the foot-in-the-door tactic."</em> — Joseph Schow</p>
<p>On a day when there's serious talk in the United States that women's right to reproductive freedom may not just be restricted, but soon all but eliminated, it's scary to think the social conservative movement is working effectively behind the scenes in Canada to achieve the same goal.</p>
<p>With one more judge appointed to the United States Supreme Court by President Donald Trump, "the court would most likely gut its current abortion standards and allow legislatures to enact restrictions that would make access to abortion practically impossible in hostile states," <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/28/opinion/abortion-kennedy-supreme-court-trump.html">wrote Yale Law professor Reva Siegel</a> in the <em>New York Times </em>yesterday, as our American neighbours contemplate the unfolding nightmare south of the 49th Parallel.</p>
<p>Here in Canada, have no doubt that Canadian social conservative politicians would very much like to do the same thing.</p>
<p>Now, if you were to suggest on social media that this applies to Jason Kenney, the lifelong social conservative and anti-abortion campaigner who now leads Alberta's Opposition United Conservative Party, you would be met with howls of protest from his supporters. They would shout he's promised to change nothing on the abortion rights file and you're just a scaremongering supporter of the Alberta NDP.</p>
<p>But is this really scaremongering?</p>
<p>In the past few hours, 2016 comments made by Joseph Schow, the <a href="https://lethbridgenewsnow.com/article/610131/schow-wins-ucp-nomination-cardston-siksika">successful candidate for the UCP nomination</a> in the deep-south Alberta riding of Cardston-Siksika, have resurfaced that show this is the goal of at least some other UCPers, and what the strategy is for achieving it.</p>
<p>By way of background, the new Cardston-Siksika electoral district includes most of the current Little Bow Riding, and part of the existing Cardston-Taber-Warner district. Blogger Dave Cournoyer, the only Alberta writer who pays attention to the important technical electoral details that are habitually ignored by our neglectful mainstream media, <a href="http://daveberta.ca/2018/06/ndp-get-their-first-contested-nomination-in-calgary-varsity-more-than-3000-ucpers-vote-in-cardston-siksika/">calls it the heart of Alberta's Bible Belt</a>. Given the location of the town of Cardston in the riding, site of the first Mormon Temple outside the borders of the United States, <em>the Book of Mormon Belt</em> might be more like it.</p>
<p>It's located in a region where social conservative values may be more the norm than the exception, where child vaccinations are resisted by unusually large numbers of parents, and which includes a few out-of-the-way spots where plural marriage is discreetly practiced. So it is undeniably an electoral district in which social conservative notions are closer to the mainstream than almost anywhere else in Canada.</p>
<p>Schow's comments were made when he was vying for the Conservative Party of Canada nomination in the 2016 Medicine Hat-Cardston-Warner federal by-election that was eventually won by Glen Motz, now the riding’s MP.</p>
<p>There were six candidates for the nomination and every one of them demonstrated their anti-abortion credentials at a public forum in Medicine Hat on June 15 that year.</p>
<p>That was where Schow, a married father of two and former Tory staffer in Ottawa during Kenney's time there, made the comment quoted at the top of this post. <a href="http://www.josephschow.ca/bio">His official biography</a> highlights "promoting religious freedom in Canada" as a special interest, as well as his role as an "activist fighting for the values he was brought up with while living in Southern Alberta." <em>Ah-hem!</em></p>
<p>Now, a caveat. We are depending on <a href="https://www.pressreader.com/canada/medicine-hat-news/20160616/281487865634248">a story in the <em>Medicine Hat News</em></a> that is incredibly sloppy -- rife with spelling errors, incorrectly transcribed words, and misplaced quotation marks, which I have taken a risk and tried to correct. Still, the intent and meaning of Schow's words are quite clear despite these technical difficulties.</p>
<p>"Our party is about conscience rights," he told the meeting. "On abortion, we're never going to see a black and white, yes or no question. My job as your MP is to fight for incremental changes such as (restrictions on) sex-selective abortions, then on late-term abortions." The explanatory phrase in brackets is the reporter's. "It's called a 'foot-in-the-door tactic'."</p>
<p>Schow's comment is not exactly news. Anyone concerned with women's reproductive rights knows this is how the social conservative right plots to achieve its unpopular and dangerous goals. What's interesting is that he felt confident enough among his supporters to say so aloud.</p>
<p>Schow, 34, whom I imagine Kenney knew well in Ottawa, was clearly the leader's choice for this riding, where it is likely the UCP candidate will win regardless of his views on this or other topics. (And where, by the way, the Conservative candidate will likely always be a <em>he</em>.)</p>
<p>The party will do its best to divert our attention in the rest of the province if the topic comes up. If it does anyway you can count on it we will be given the same bland assurances not to worry, that nothing can change. But you can be equally assured Schow's views and his preferred strategy will remain the same.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://twitter.com/jkenney/status/1012205184670261254">a congratulatory Tweet</a>, Kenney said of the new UCP candidate, "Joseph is a smart, principled young Albertan, part of a new generation of leadership who will work hard to get Alberta on track."</p>
<p>He's also a guy who knows how to get a foot in the door to incrementally restrict the reproductive rights of all women, whether or not they share his beliefs.</p>
<p>We don't know what he thinks about the rights of our LGBTQ+ fellow citizens, but it might be worth asking him about that sometime too, if the opportunity ever arises.</p>
<p>Not all conservatives are social conservatives, of course. But if the success of President Trump in the United States is any guide, many economic conservatives are willing to sacrifice almost any principle if having a social conservative in office is what it takes for them to win. Presumably, they assume they can carve out exceptions for themselves and their own families.</p>
<p>Naturally, at the provincial level, the foot-in-the-door strategy is more likely to come through tactics such as delisting medical services -- citing the cost, not the desire to control women's bodies, of course. But it will come nevertheless, a bit at a time, just as it did in the United States, if we entrust our governments to them.</p>
<p>This is how it started in the United States, and this is how they intend to see it start in Canada too.</p>
<p><em>This post also appears on David Climenhaga's blog, <a href="http://albertapolitcs.ca/">AlbertaPolitics.ca</a>. </em></p>
<p><em>Image: Flickr/progressohio</em></p>
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</div></div></div>Fri, 29 Jun 2018 20:44:59 +0000djclimenhaga147936 at http://rabble.cahttp://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/alberta-diary/2018/06/ucp-candidates-abortion-restricting-strategy-canada-revealed#commentsCanadian Taxpayers Federation a 'partner' of right-wing U.S.-based Atlas Networkhttp://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/alberta-diary/2018/06/canadian-taxpayers-federation-partner-right-wing-us-based-atlas
<div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">David J. Climenhaga</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-for-node field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://rabble.ca/sites/default/files/styles/large_story_850px/public/5459618439_02344b3a37_b.jpg?itok=Nr5ATnI0" width="1180" height="600" alt="Statue of Atlas holding the Earth. Image: Flickr/elentir" title="Statue of Atlas holding the Earth. Image: Flickr/elentir" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>The Canadian Taxpayers Federation, a self-described non-partisan tax watchdog and taxpayer advocacy group once headed by Alberta Opposition Leader Jason Kenney, has always been tight-lipped about the sources of its own funding and support.</p>
<p>This may be mildly ironic, given its vocal demands for transparency in government policy, but as a private organization that aggressively fundraises for small donations -- it claims to receive about 30,000 individual donations yearly -- it is certainly within its legal rights to do so.</p>
<p>However, given the CTF's tight ties to Conservative Canadian political parties and its vocal advocacy of policies those parties support -- often co-ordinated with Conservative candidates through <a href="https://www.taxpayer.com/news-releases/doug-ford-keeping-carbon-tax-promise-to-canadian-taxpayers-federation" target="_blank">public policy pledges</a> -- it is troubling that mainstream media never seems to press the organization on this issue, and continues to treat it as if it were a non-partisan authority on tax policy.</p>
<p>I have asked CTF operatives on more than one occasion if they have foreign donors and have always been informed the group's policy is not to publish its donors' names, addresses, or the amount or nature of their support.</p>
<p>You can read <a href="https://www.taxpayer.com/blog/setting-the-record-straight--why-the-ctf-protects-the-privacy-of-its-donors" target="_blank">the CTF's description of its privacy policy</a>, wherein it claims to be protecting donors from being targeted by "government officials, petty politicians, agitated union activists and various other stalwarts of the entitlement state," here.</p>
<p>As an aside, the CTF also has <a href="https://www.taxpayer.com/blog/setting-the-record-straight--how-the-ctf-is-governed" target="_blank">a page on its website</a> devoted to defending the fact, first reported in this blog in 2013, that while it claims to be a large organization with more than 100,000 adherents, its only actual members entitled to see its financial reports are the people who sit on its board, usually five.</p>
<p>No one is asking the CTF to give up names of individual donors, of course. Most of them are doubtless sincere individuals of limited means who have been persuaded to part with a few dollars by the organization's tireless fundraising. However, the possibility an organization that plays an influential role in Canadian democracy is getting support from abroad is another matter.</p>
<p>So it was interesting while <a href="http://albertapolitics.ca/2018/06/money-from-wealthy-right-wing-ideologues-helps-fuel-group-challenging-albertas-protections-for-gsa-members/" target="_blank">researching a recent post</a> on the so-called Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, a Calgary-based organization that specializes in litigation supporting social conservative causes and headed by former CTF Alberta director John Carpay, to learn the CTF has a relationship described as a "partnership" with the Arlington, Virginia-based Atlas Network.</p>
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlas_Network" target="_blank">The Atlas Network</a> -- previously known as the Atlas Economic Research Foundation -- was founded in 1981 by Antony Fisher. The wealthy far-right Briton bankrolled market-fundamentalist think-tanks in several countries, including the Fraser Institute in Canada. Knighted by Margaret Thatcher's government a month before his death in 1988, Sir Antony was one of the most influential figures in the establishment of the <em>libertarian Internationale</em> that now dominates conservative parties around the world.</p>
<p>From its headquarters in the Washington suburb, the Atlas Network is an international conduit for right-wing cash and other forms of assistance, supporting 485 market-fundamentalist and social-conservative "partners" in 95 countries, according to its website. Atlas partners include a dozen entities in Canada.</p>
<p>Checking a reference that the JCCF was on the group's list of Canadian partners, lo and behold, <a href="https://www.atlasnetwork.org/partners/global-directory/canada" target="_blank">there was the CTF as well</a>.</p>
<p>Of course, we don't know exactly what the CTF receives from the Atlas Network, or whether it receives support from other foreign sources, but we can now say with confidence the CTF is supported by an influential right-wing U.S. organization that boasts it "inspires and incentivizes" like-minded groups in 29 countries. Atlas says on its website in <a href="https://www.atlasnetwork.org/poverty" target="_blank">a page devoted to what it calls philanthropic effects to reduce poverty</a> that in the past two and a half years it has "has invested $1,975,000 in reforms expanding economic choices" in those countries.</p>
<p>As for its partners, the Atlas Network says there are no costs to them, but <a href="https://www.atlasnetwork.org/page/become-a-partner" target="_blank">"you will have access to apply for training, grants and award opportunities."</a></p>
<p>When asked directly if the CTF has received grants, training, awards or other support from Atlas, the CTF President and CEO Troy Lanigan said, for the record, that he does not "share donor confidentiality." Those who wish to deduce from this that Atlas is confirmed as a donor are, presumably, free to do so.</p>
<p>Since we are nowadays in a lather about the threat of Russian interference in North American and Western European democracy through the use of social media and domestic fifth columnists, not to mention the efforts of foreign environmentalists, perhaps we should also be looking at the pernicious influence on Canadian democracy of well-financed right-wing ideological support networks from other countries such as the Atlas Network.</p>
<p>According to <a href="https://theintercept.com/2017/08/09/atlas-network-alejandro-chafuen-libertarian-think-tank-latin-america-brazil/" target="_blank">a report last year in <em>The Intercept</em></a>, the Atlas Network "has reshaped political power in country after country," and "has also operated as a quiet extension of U.S. foreign policy."</p>
<p>The report by journalist Lee Fang, notes that the Atlas Network is financed, in turn, partly by foundations run by the notorious Koch Brothers. <em>The Intercept</em> journalist said think-tanks in Latin America associated with Atlas have received "quiet funding from the State Department and the National Endowment for Democracy, a critical arm of American soft power."</p>
<p>Atlas is said to have distributed about US$5 million to groups it supports worldwide in 2016, Fang wrote.</p>
<p>According to the Atlas website, it has accepted a dozen Canadian organizations as partners -- half of them market-fundamentalist think-tanks including the Fraser Institute, whose never-ending stream of press releases attacking public policy by Liberal and NDP governments shows up in uncritical mainstream news coverage virtually daily.</p>
<p>Two more are litigation groups specializing in right-wing causes -- both of which have appropriated the initials CCF. Another appears to be a society devoted to proselytizing the nutty cult-like beliefs of the so-called "Austrian School" of economics.</p>
<p>The final three are Preston Manning's eponymous Calgary training centre for right-wing activists (whose former communications adviser now acts as the CTF's Alberta director), the CTF itself, and an international organization of similar Astro-Turf groups that appears to be run out of the CTF's offices in Regina and headed by Lanigan.</p>
<p>Most of the Canadian entities supported by the Atlas Network have been granted charitable status by the Canada Revenue Agency.</p>
<p>As for Atlas, in Greek mythology, he was the Titan condemned to hold up the sky for eternity, although often portrayed holding up the Earth. His figure is a favourite of extreme market-fundamentalists, used in the title of the daffy far-right "philosopher" Ayn Rand's unreadable novel, <em>Atlas Shrugged</em>.</p>
<p>It is the view of this blogger that it's time for the left to take back the noble figure of Atlas, condemned by an unjust pantheon of the celestial 1% to bear the weight of the entire world while they use it as their playground.</p>
<p><strong>Canadian Atlas Network 'Partners':</strong></p>
<p>According to its website, the Atlas Network, a U.S. based funder of right-wing market-fundamentalist groups that exerts great influence on politics worldwide, has 12 Canadian "partners." They are:</p>
<ul><li><em>Atlantic Institute for Market Studies</em> -- a market-fundamentalist think tank based in Halifax; has charitable status</li>
<li><em>Canadian Constitution Foundation</em> -- specialists in litigation in support of right-wing causes operating out of Calgary; has charitable status</li>
<li><em>Canadian Taxpayers Federation</em> -- a high-profile Astro-Turf organization based in Regina; does not have charitable status</li>
<li><em>Fraser Institute</em> -- a market-fundamentalist think tank in Vancouver; has charitable status</li>
<li>Frontier Centre for Public Policy -- a market-fundamentalist think tank in Winnipeg; has charitable status</li>
<li><em>Institute for Liberal Studies</em> -- a market-fundamentalist think tank based in Ottawa; has charitable status</li>
<li><em>Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms</em> -- specialists in litigation in support of social conservative causes based in Calgary; has charitable status</li>
<li><em>Ludwig von Mises Institute of Canada</em> -- a Toronto-based spin-off of the Alabama organization of the same name dedicated to the anarcho-capitalist teachings of Ludwig von Mises and other members of the so-called "Austrian School" of economics; has charitable status</li>
<li><em>Macdonald-Laurier Institute for Public Policy</em> -- a market-fundamentalist think tank in Ottawa; has charitable status</li>
<li><em>Manning Centre</em> -- former Reform Party leader Preston Manning's Calgary training centre for right-wing operatives; does not have charitable status, although the related Manning Foundation for Democratic Education does</li>
<li><em>Montreal Economic Institute</em> -- bilingual market-fundamentalist think tank in Montreal; did not show up in the Canada Revenue Agency directory of charities but the organization states on its website it has charitable status</li>
<li><em>World Taxpayers Associations</em> -- an international alliance of self-described "taxpayer protection groups" listing London, England, as its headquarters but apparently run from the CTF's Regina offices and led by the CTF CEO; there is no indication of charitable status</li>
</ul><p><em>NOTE: This post has been modified from its original appearance in acknowledgement of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation's assertion that a funding relationship cannot be proved based on its partnership with the Atlas Network. The CTF will not comment further, citing its policy of donor confidentiality. </em></p>
<p><em>This post also appears on David Climenhaga's blog, <a href="http://albertapolitics.ca/" target="_blank">AlbertaPolitics.ca</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>Image: Flickr/elentir</em></p>
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</div></div></div>Sat, 23 Jun 2018 05:34:16 +0000djclimenhaga147686 at http://rabble.cahttp://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/alberta-diary/2018/06/canadian-taxpayers-federation-partner-right-wing-us-based-atlas#commentsThe day we burned ole D.C. down -- or why I blame Stephen Harper for Canada's latest trade troubles!http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/alberta-diary/2018/06/day-we-burned-ole-dc-down-or-why-i-blame-stephen-harper-canadas
<div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">David J. Climenhaga</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-for-node field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://rabble.ca/sites/default/files/styles/large_story_850px/public/Catching_Up_with_The_Curator-_The_White_House_Fire_of_1814.jpg?itok=oIk5G3Pw" width="1180" height="600" alt="Illustration of White House in flames. Image: The White House/Wikimedia Commons" title="Illustration of White House in flames. Image: The White House/Wikimedia Commons" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>I blame Stephen Harper.</p>
<p>Face it, Canada's latest trade troubles wouldn't have happened without him!</p>
<p>If Mr. Harper hadn't spent $30 million or so of our tax money "commemorating" the War of 1812, who would've known our side burned down the White House and sundry other buildings in Washington, D.C., in August of that year?</p>
<p>Certainly not Donald Trump, the current occupant of the building we Canadians have been bragging about burning down for nearly 204 years now.</p>
<p>The $30 million spent by the Government of Canada on Mr. Harper's watch as prime minister during the bicentennial year of the War of 1812, by the way, seems to have been part of a misguided effort to make Canada more like the United States by emphasizing military campaigns over other Canadian accomplishments. This was done, presumably, to make it easier for Trump-like characters like Doug Ford to get elected in Canada.</p>
<p>The Harper Conservatives, for example, had very little to say about the 40th anniversary of the Official Languages Act or the 30th anniversary of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, both of which fell in the same year as the War of 1812 bicentennial.</p>
<p>Both of those, however, could be fairly described as the accomplishments of Liberal governments led by someone named Trudeau, so it's no surprise the hyper-partisan Harper Conservatives wanted them to just go away, along with the distinctly Canadian accomplishments they represented.</p>
<p>It was just bad luck (as it turns out) that the military bicentennial that came up while Mr. Harper's Republican-like Conservative Party of Canada was in power happened to be one that involved a confrontation with the United States in Washington, D.C., albeit a Washington that was not yet the imperial planetary capital.</p>
<p>Never mind that Canadians had little or nothing to do with the burning of the White House. You can blame the Royal Marines for that, along with a little help from the Royal Engineers and sundry regiments of the British Army. As far as anyone seems to know, there wasn't a single Canadian on the job inside the as-yet-unimagined Beltway that night.</p>
<p>Indeed, you could probably credit Canada with putting the fire out. After all, the destruction of Washington was mostly a dud as a result of a heavy rainstorm, and as all Canadian TV watchers know, our American cousins <em>almost always</em> blame bad weather on Canada.</p>
<p>That notwithstanding, <em>we own the White House fire now</em>, having been taking unjustified credit for it for nigh on 204 years. Even so, if Mr. Harper had used our money to celebrate the adoption of the Charter, it's hardly likely his buddy Mr. Trump -- who the Conservatives liked so much better than President Barack Obama for some reason -- would even have heard about it.</p>
<p>By the way, if you don't like me blaming Mr. Harper personally for dumb spending decisions by the Canadian government that had unintended ironic consequences, I don't care. If that kind of treatment is good enough for President Vladimir Putin, who gets personally blamed for everything Russia is accused of doing, it's good enough for the leader of the Munich-based Neoliberal Internationale.</p>
<p>Now that President Trump has apparently told Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, a chip off the old Liberal block, that he can put a huge tariff on Canadian steel and aluminum for reasons of "national security" because <em>we</em> are the guys who once burned down the White House, it's fair to put the blame for this idea squarely where it belongs: on Mr. Harper and his Conservatives, some of whom even crossed the border to campaign for Mr. Trump.</p>
<p>As for the appropriate Canadian response to Mr. Trump's pronouncements at this point, we could always show some spine and stick it to Mr. Trump by celebrating Aug. 24, the 204th anniversary of the burning of the White House in 1814. We could declare the 24th a national day of observance to mark <em>The Day We Burned Ole D.C. Down.</em></p>
<p>I'd suggest lighting bonfires all along the 49th Parallel to remind our neighbours of what "we" once did to them and how we feel about what they're doing to us, but thanks to the global climate leadership of Mr. Harper's Conservatives and Mr. Trump's Republicans that would probably be too risky, especially if a stiff wind is blowing!</p>
<p>The War of 1812 was fought between Britain and the United States over something like the Royal Navy's bad habit of kidnapping American merchant sailors and pressing them into naval duty or the way the Americans were casting their greedy eyes at Canada. Depending on whom you talk to either way, it was a definite sideshow to the Napoleonic Wars, which ran from 1803 to 1815 and featured a French guy named Bonaparte.</p>
<p>Napoleon eventually met his Waterloo at, well, Waterloo. That was on June 18, 1815, and there is no doubt about who won that day.</p>
<p>There remains some disagreement however, about who won the War of 1812. Canadians have said to each other for years that we did (meaning the British, seeing as Canada wasn't officially a country until 1867) while our next-door neighbours apparently learned another story in school. <em>Whatever</em>.</p>
<p>But who knew they'd be paying attention to what we were saying?</p>
<p><em>Thanks, Harper!</em></p>
<p><em>Image: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Catching_Up_with_The_Curator-_The_White_House_Fire_of_1814.webm" target="_blank">The White House/Wikimedia Commons</a></em></p>
</div></div></div>Tue, 12 Jun 2018 20:32:42 +0000djclimenhaga147291 at http://rabble.cahttp://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/alberta-diary/2018/06/day-we-burned-ole-dc-down-or-why-i-blame-stephen-harper-canadas#commentsPhiladelphia Eagles have an important civics lesson for Donald Trumphttp://rabble.ca/columnists/2018/06/philadelphia-eagles-have-important-civics-lesson-donald-trump
<div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-22 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/issues/political-action">Political Action</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/issues/us-politics">US Politics</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-for-node field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://rabble.ca/sites/default/files/styles/large_story_850px/public/node-images/37155634595_1bcc81c46e_k.jpg?itok=5AVb6IZt" width="1180" height="600" alt="Philadelphia Eagles players on field. Photo: Keith Allison/Flickr" title="Philadelphia Eagles players on field. Photo: Keith Allison/Flickr" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>President Donald Trump abruptly disinvited this year's Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles from the White House this week, irked that most of the players were declining to attend. He hastily converted the event into a military celebration, betraying his authoritarian impulses, his racism and his profound ignorance of what "patriotism" means. "The Philadelphia Eagles Football Team was invited to the White House. Unfortunately, only a small number of players decided to come, and we canceled the event. Staying in the Locker Room for the playing of our National Anthem is as disrespectful to our country as kneeling. Sorry," Trump tweeted, even though not one of them took a knee during the entire season.</p>
<p>Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick protested during the 2016-17 season, first by sitting through the national anthem, then in later games by taking a knee. "I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses Black people and people of colour," he told NFL.com. His action resonated with millions of people, inspiring hundreds of other athletes, from professional teams down to high school leagues, to take a knee as well.</p>
<p>Trump lashed out at the NFL players, 70 per cent of whom are African American, at an almost entirely white rally in Huntsville, Alabama, in September 2017: "Wouldn't you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, 'Get that son of a bitch off the field right now, out, he's fired. He's fired!'" The president told Fox News in May, "You have to stand proudly for the national anthem. Or you shouldn't be playing … Maybe you shouldn't be in the country."</p>
<p>NFL team owners, overwhelmingly white men, half of whom are billionaires, held a secret meeting with several players in October, following Trump's attacks. <em>The New York Times</em> obtained an audio recording of the three-hour meeting. Jeffrey Lurie, the Eagles' owner, warned, "We've got to be careful not to be baited by Trump." Nevertheless, the NFL took Trump's bait, issuing a new policy in May requiring players to "stand and show respect for the flag and the anthem." Players could choose to remain in their locker room, but refusing to stand during the anthem while on the field would result in the team being fined.</p>
<p>It was a U.S. Army veteran who advised Kaepernick to change his protest from sitting to taking a knee. Nate Boyer, a former NFL player and Green Beret, wrote an open letter to Kaepernick, and met with him. "I'm not judging you for standing up for what you believe in. It's your inalienable right," Boyer wrote. "What you are doing takes a lot of courage … I've never had to deal with prejudice because of the colour of my skin."</p>
<p>Protest takes courage, and often comes at a cost. Colin Kaepernick hasn't been hired by any NFL team, even though he is indisputably one of the best quarterbacks in the country today. He is pursuing a formal grievance against the NFL, alleging collusion by the owners to keep him unsigned. His former teammate Eric Reid, who also took a knee and remains unsigned, is doing the same.</p>
<p>Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney praised the Eagles, saying, "These are players who stand up for the causes they believe in and who contribute in meaningful ways to their community." These contributions include efforts by Eagles' safety Malcolm Jenkins, who is part of a players' coalition that has partnered with the NFL to commit at least $90 million to programs combating social inequality, Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz matching up to half a million dollars in donations to raise money for Haiti, and Eagles defensive end Chris Long donating his entire 2017 million-dollar base salary to charity.</p>
<p>On Wednesday, Malcolm Jenkins responded to Trump's disinvitation, silently holding a series of hand-written signs before members of the press. Some of them read:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>"You aren't listening."</p>
<p>"More than 60 per cent of people in prison are people of colour."</p>
<p>"Any given night 500,000 sit in jail. Convicted? No. Too Poor? Yes #EndCashBail."</p>
<p>"Colin Kaepernick gave $1 million to charity."</p>
<p>"In 2018 439 people shot and killed by police (thus far)."</p>
</blockquote>
<p>At his brief replacement event at the White House on Tuesday, Trump tried and failed to sing along with the U.S. Army Chorus' rendition of "God Bless America." He didn't know the words, just like he doesn't know what patriotism is. Dissent is patriotic. These brave athletes, representing the city where the U.S. Constitution was drafted, have an important civics lesson for President Trump.</p>
<p><em>Amy Goodman is the host of </em>Democracy Now!<em>, a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on more than 1,300 stations. She is the co-author, with Denis Moynihan, of</em> The Silenced Majority<em>, a</em> New York Times <em>bestseller. <em><em><em><em><em><em><em><em>T</em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em>his column originally appeared on </em><a href="https://www.truthdig.com/articles/as-the-eagles-soar-trump-gets-sore/" target="_blank">Truthdig</a>.</p>
<p><em>Photo: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/keithallison/37155634595/in/photolist-YBjkFz-XnnxNp-Ym4q4E-XkhxFo-Y131XE-Xk9DrC-Xn7ud8-YB25Ba-23wyHYR-WEvWu4-VHAa3g-T6HrNr-KLGnTr-DVFgsJ-FDvm4J-231vhMb-231vhso-234aGfz-234aCBn-234atrP-21HwD3n-21HwBN8-21HwAJ4-21HwwTt-234aaoz-Y1npQ5-XkAm2f-XnyKcp-YmkKpG-YmkrFq-YBsH8g-Xny9dr-Y1mgqG-Y1maD1-Xnxnwc-Ymi1sy-Y1j3As-XktupG-YmdRQw-YBmAeZ-YmdrEC-YBk7eH-XnpMBH-YBhrJv-YBgWtr-Xnj5T8-Ym5S9o-Y16CW7-Xkiiwj-Yjs93S" target="_blank">Keith Allison/Flickr</a></em></p>
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</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-9 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/tags/donald-trump">Donald Trump</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/tags-issues/americans-football">americans football</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/26213">U.S. politics</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/tags-issues/nfl">NFL</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/tags-issues/national-anthem">national anthem</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/38364">Amy Goodman</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/bios/denis-moynihan">Denis Moynihan</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-story-publish-date field-type-date field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><span class="date-display-single">June 7, 2018</span></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-related-item1 field-type-link-field field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://rabble.ca/columnists/2017/09/taking-knee-kaepernick-sparked-movement-justice" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">By taking a knee, Kaepernick sparked a movement for justice</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-related-item1-desc field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Much like Rosa Parks, Colin Kaepernick sat down and refused to get up. And like Rosa Parks on that Montgomery bus more than 60 years ago, Colin Kaepernick has sparked a movement.</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-related-item2 field-type-link-field field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://rabble.ca/books/reviews/2010/01/athletes-activists">Athletes as activists</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-related-item2-desc field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Dave Zirin&#039;s People&#039;s History of Sports explores the politics of sport and tells the stories of activist athletes. He came to Vancouver at the invitation of the Olympic Resistance Network.</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-related-item3 field-type-link-field field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://rabble.ca/news/2015/08/black-lives-matter-canada-too-inside-movement" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Black Lives Matter in Canada too: Inside the movement</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-related-item3-desc field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Why are Black Lives Matter movements occurring in Toronto and who is leading this movement in Canada? Find this out and more about the future of the movement here.</div></div></div>Thu, 07 Jun 2018 15:15:54 +0000rabble staff147076 at http://rabble.cahttp://rabble.ca/columnists/2018/06/philadelphia-eagles-have-important-civics-lesson-donald-trump#commentsFBI continues to harass activists of colour, internal documents showhttp://rabble.ca/columnists/2018/06/fbi-continues-harass-activists-colour-internal-documents-show
<div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-22 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/issues/anti-racism">Anti-Racism</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/issues/political-action">Political Action</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/issues/us-politics">US Politics</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-for-node field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://rabble.ca/sites/default/files/styles/large_story_850px/public/node-images/6060373732_c3c40934a7_b.jpg?itok=Qgg6jxxN" width="1180" height="600" alt="FBI van. Photo: André Gustavo Stumpf/Flickr" title="FBI van. Photo: André Gustavo Stumpf/Flickr" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>Roseanne Barr's abhorrent tweet, comparing Obama presidential adviser Valerie Jarrett to an ape, once again put race front and centre in the U.S. national discourse, where it should remain. The scourge of racism takes many shapes, and has been integral to American history long before the nation's founding. Racism's most odious form, though, is when it appears as official policy, as is the case with the "Black Identity Extremist" ("BIE") classification recently adopted by the FBI.</p>
<p>The "Black Identity Extremist" label was revealed last year when an FBI report was leaked to the press, provoking a firestorm of criticism from civil liberties and racial justice groups, alleging the FBI was reverting to behavior akin to COINTELPRO, its counterintelligence program from the 1950s, '60s and '70s, when it criminally targeted, surveilled, infiltrated and disrupted protest organizations like the Black Panther Party, leading to the imprisonment and death of many.</p>
<p>This recent leaked FBI report, titled "Black Identity Extremists Likely Motivated to Target Law Enforcement Officers," was dated Aug. 3, 2017 -- ominously, just three days before the violent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where one anti-racist activist, Heather Heyer, was killed, and scores more were injured.</p>
<p>In addition to the FBI memo, documents obtained by several groups under the Freedom of Information Act revealed the existence of an internal document at the Department of Homeland Security, that staff there referred to as the "Race Paper." The American Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Media Justice and 40 other organizations have written to DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, calling for the release of the unredacted version of this paper. A copy was released by DHS, but in a completely redacted form.</p>
<p>"We believe that the 'Race Paper' may improperly suggest that constitutionally protected Black political speech should be considered an indicator of criminal conduct or a national security threat," the letter's co-signers wrote, expressing their concern over "serious implications on the constitutional rights and safety of Black and Brown people in the United States, and, in particular, protesters and activists of colour."</p>
<p>At least one African-American activist has been jailed as a "Black Identity Extremist." Rakem Balogun, a Dallas-based activist, believes he was the first person arrested as a "BIE." He described his arrest on the <em>Democracy Now!</em> news hour: "On December 12th [2017], around 6 a.m. in the morning, me and my son were at home resting, when FBI agents rammed our door and immediately rushed us outside in our underwear, under gunpoint." He spent five months in jail on trumped-up charges of illegal firearms possession that were later dropped. "The FBI was pretty much surveilling me for over two and a half years as a domestic terrorist," he explained. "The judge denied me bond based off of me using my First Amendment right to criticize police officers on Facebook."</p>
<p>Malkia Cyril, executive director of the Center for Media Justice and a Black Lives Matter Bay Area activist, is no stranger to the FBI's aggressive surveillance of people of colour. "My mother was a member of the Black Panther Party in New York," she said on <em>Democracy Now!</em> "She ran the breakfast program in New York. And my mother was visited by the FBI just weeks before she died in 2005. So this FBI harassment of Black activists didn't end in 1969. It didn't end when COINTELPRO was exposed in 1971. It is continuing today. Under current political conditions, Black activists are being targeted, Muslims are being targeted, immigrants are being targeted, while white supremacists are running free."</p>
<p><em>The Intercept</em> obtained FBI documents confirming that the FBI surveilled and infiltrated activist groups that were organizing after the 2014 police killing of African-American teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Much of the surveillance relied on "open source," or publicly accessible, information, such as social media posts that included activists' travel plans.</p>
<p>Where is the FBI when it comes to recent white mass shooters who posted highly disturbing content to social media before their killing sprees? Dimitrios Pagourtzis, who murdered eight students and two teachers at Santa Fe High School in Texas, posted on Facebook a picture of a T-shirt reading "born to kill." Nikolas Cruz, the 19-year-old who killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland, Florida, was reported to the FBI and police more than 40 times, in part because of his disturbing social media posts, yet he was never arrested.</p>
<p>Racism is unacceptable, anywhere, anytime, whether it is a tweet from a TV star or the president, or white NFL owners punishing Black athletes for kneeling in protest of police brutality, or the arrest of African-American patrons, as recently happened at a Philadelphia Starbucks. And we must be especially intolerant of racism when it appears as official government policy, enshrined in secret documents in black and white.</p>
<p><em>Amy Goodman is the host of </em>Democracy Now!<em>, a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on more than 1,300 stations. She is the co-author, with Denis Moynihan, of</em> The Silenced Majority<em>, a</em> New York Times <em>bestseller. <em><em><em><em><em><em><em><em>T</em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em>his column originally appeared on </em><a href="https://www.truthdig.com/articles/whats-a-black-identity-extremist-groups-demand-trump-dhs-release-race-paper/" target="_blank">Truthdig</a>.</p>
<p><em>Photo: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/degu_andre/6060373732/in/photolist-aewZYh-Es8JTt-diSg5x-diSdB1-aeucd4-5vSNod-7NjMGJ-aewZFY-6cFyHe-diSgyK-oidJAc-diSgpF-diSfLk-6cu1JZ-8u3sGX-8u6ySh-8u6yUh-ad3eHD-4zQJ3i-asAhtX-68fLPL-TWRxEs-diSdwQ-fjx8ro-diSds7-5vSN79-ogaVSB-cq5Cn7-6cTuc4-7f71KK-TZHXMT-87LNSf-87HANt-jSBfh-xJ43s-WAc75-diSdPA-8w4iW5-oeqqMj-oeqewd-dAFmh7-5vSN2U-diSdJs-VekPeV-2WHEH4-owDsrH-diSgmp-nrqj3Q-7t2qW1-nad2L8" target="_blank">André Gustavo Stumpf/Flickr</a></em></p>
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</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-9 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/26213">U.S. politics</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/tags-issues/racial-profiling">racial profiling</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/tags-issues/racial-injustice">racial injustice</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/tags-issues/fbi">fbi</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/38364">Amy Goodman</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/bios/denis-moynihan">Denis Moynihan</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-story-publish-date field-type-date field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><span class="date-display-single">June 5, 2018</span></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-related-item1 field-type-link-field field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://rabble.ca/columnists/2018/05/kanye-west-should-visit-montgomery-slavery-memorial-and-take-donald-trump-him" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Kanye West should visit the Montgomery Slavery Memorial -- and take Donald Trump with him</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-related-item1-desc field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Kanye West, the legendary rap artist, provoked controversy this week when he said in an interview: &quot;When you hear about slavery for 400 years. … That sounds like a choice.&quot;</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-related-item2 field-type-link-field field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://rabble.ca/columnists/2017/08/trump-defends-white-supremacists-confederate-symbols-resistance-increases">Trump defends white supremacists, confederate symbols, as resistance increases</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-related-item2-desc field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">The growing movement for racial justice is making demands and taking action. With each passing day, white supremacists will find themselves with fewer and fewer Confederate statues to cling to.</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-related-item3 field-type-link-field field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://rabble.ca/podcasts/shows/hum-podcast/2018/05/la-tanya-grant-opens-about-cousin-jermaine-carby-gunned-down-peel" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">La Tanya Grant opens up about cousin Jermaine Carby, gunned down by Peel police in 2014</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-related-item3-desc field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Jermaine Carby was shot dead by Peel Regional Police in 2014. La Tanya Grant joins us to talk about her cousin, police brutality and more. </div></div></div>Tue, 05 Jun 2018 15:15:18 +0000rabble staff147016 at http://rabble.cahttp://rabble.ca/columnists/2018/06/fbi-continues-harass-activists-colour-internal-documents-show#comments